[TN-Bird] Rusty Blackbirds, etc.
- From: Jeannie Swant <jswant@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: tn-bird <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 9 Mar 2015 07:45:47 -0500
Sunday morning 3/8/15, Jeannie and I left our Coffee County home to see the
last of the ducks around Guntersville Lake, AL. The Stevenson Park area still
had plenty of Rusty Blackbird activity. The mixed flock was about 80% Rusties,
15% Grackle, with a few Red-wings and Starlings. They were moving back and
forth over the truck from the wooded swampy areas to the rainwater ponds and
lake edge, making a complete count impossible. Our best Rusty count without a
major movement of birds was 105. This would be a lot easier in December before
the flocks get so mixed with other blackbird-like species and while the males
are still all rusty! Jeannie spotted a Lesser Yellowlegs and a Snipe while
looking at the blackbirds.
Around the lake there was mostly a few thousand Coots, a few hundred
Pied-billed Grebes, and maybe a hundred ducks mixed between Bufflehead, Scaup,
Ring-necked, and Gadwall. Of course we also saw plenty of DC Cormorants. The
Osprey pair was back nesting as always on the ball field lights.
The most noteworthy water birds were 135 A. White Pelicans, soaring in two
kettles over North Sauty. Love the wings on those birds! Almost all the gulls
were Ring-billed although there was a small flock of 10 or so Bonaparte's. We
walked around some wooded areas at Goose Pond Colony with only short sleeves
and had a lot of the expected birds, including great looks at a YB Sapsucker
and Kinglets, which we will soon be missing.
The biggest surprise and definitely a first for us, was coming back to Coffee
County to find more ducks and duck species than we'd seen at Guntersville. The
two flooded field ponds we checked (Pelham and Hillsboro) had a combined 150 N.
Shoveler, 45 Mallard, 8 Bufflehead, 5 Ring-necked, 8 Lesser Scaup, 4 A. Wigeon,
4 Green-winged Teal, 3 Canvasback, 1 Pintail, 14 Gadwall, 10 Snow Geese, and 30
Canada Geese. What a fabulous day to be out birding!
Dale Swant
Manchester, TN
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